What is the difference between a router and an Ethernet switch

Routers and switches, the differences between the two are as follows:

1. The router works at the network layer of the OSI model, which can identify the IP address, and according to the IP address ** packet, and maintain the routing table, and can make the best route selection based on the routing table;

2. The router can also enable ACL access control list, NAT address translation and other functions to expand network applications.

3. The traditional switch works at the data link layer of the OSI model, which can identify the MAC address, according to the MAC address ** data frame, and maintain a bridge table to carry out the data frame according to the correspondence between the MAC address and the port on the bridge table.

4. The switch is able to isolate the collision domain and divide the VLAN.

With the development of society, many families have 2 or more computers, in order to realize the common Internet access of computers, routers and switches are slowly being recognized by more people, but because home routers and switches look similar from the outside, many people do not know the difference between routers and switches, and what their roles are. Router The difference between a router and a switch: the switch is mainly to realize that everyone goes to the Internet through a network cable, but everyone is dialed up separately, each uses its own broadband, and everyone has no impact on their own Internet access, even if other people are in **, it has no impact on their own Internet access, and all computers that use the same switch are in the same local area network.

The router has one more virtual dial-up function than the switch, and the computers that access the Internet through the same router share a broadband, and the Internet access between everyone is mutually influencing, such as a computer in **, then other computers on the same router will obviously feel that the network speed is very slow.

Difference 1: The load and subnet are different. There can only be one path between Ethernet switches, so that information is concentrated on a single communication link and cannot be dynamically distributed to balance the load.

The routing protocol algorithm of the router can avoid this, as the OSPF routing protocol algorithm can not only generate multiple routes, but also select different optimal routes for different network applications, which shows that the load of the router is significantly greater than that of the Ethernet switch. Ethernet switches can only recognize MAC addresses. MAC addresses are physical addresses and have a flat address structure, so they cannot be subnetted based on MAC addresses.

The router identifies the IP address, the IP address is assigned by the network administrator, is a logical address and the IP address has a hierarchical structure, which is divided into network number and host number, which can be used very conveniently to divide subnets, and the main function of the router is to connect different networks.

Difference 2: Media and broadcast control are different. The Ethernet switch can only reduce the collision domain, but not the broadcast domain, and the entire switched network is a large broadcast domain, and the broadcast packets are dispersed to the entire switched network.

The router can isolate the broadcast domain and the broadcast packets cannot continue to be broadcast through the router. It can be seen that the Ethernet switch has a much larger broadcast control range than the router, and the broadcast control range of the router is still relatively small. As a bridging device, the Ethernet switch can also complete the conversion between different link layers and the physical layer, but this conversion process is more complex and not suitable for ASIC implementation, which is bound to reduce the speed of the switch.

The router has two layers, one layer connects broadband information, and the other layer is responsible for distributing the received information to the local area network, and the switch only has the function of distributing data.

The biggest difference is that the Ethernet switch does not have NAT function, the switching is switching, working in Layer 2, and the routing work in Layer 3.

Ethernet switch is a switch based on Ethernet to transmit data, and Ethernet adopts a shared bus transmission ** local area network. Ethernet switches are structured in such a way that each port is connected directly to the host and generally works in full-duplex mode. The switch can connect many pairs of ports at the same time, allowing each pair of hosts to communicate with each other to transfer data as if they were exclusive communications**.

The essential difference between them is that routers can connect to different network segments, and switches can only be the same network segments.

Unlike switches, switches can be used within a local area network, and routers can connect to other networks.

It's not the same to put it simply, the switch needs to be dialed, and the router doesn't need to be dialed.

The interface function of ordinary switches is the same, and the router has an external network interface, that is, the WAN port, which is a WAN interface, which is generally connected to the telecom side or the cat, and the LAN port function is the same as the port function on the ordinary switch.

The difference is for sure, the switch packets**, without NAT function, the router has both.

These are two different concepts, and the switch is a hardware component in an Ethernet network.

Your question is roughly equivalent to: what is the relationship between highways and toll booths...

Any two nodes of a switch provide exclusive electrical signal paths, while Ethernet is a technology that includes software protocols and hardware.

The concept is different, the Ethernet is large, the switch is small, and the switch and other equipment make up the Ethernet.

The problem can be understood as space and stars.

Stars and other dark matter make up space.